Approaching Incarnations of Taxis in 2019

Indhumathi D

A wide range of innovative concepts has emerged in the ride-hailing industry due to the growing demands of commuters. Congested roads and traffic-prone areas paved way for the evolution of on-demand transits in order to make daily commutes easy. In order to make transportation eco-friendly and more efficient, automakers are indulged in making vehicles connected, electric, and autonomous.

The year 2018 has witnessed the emergence of unique taxi concepts (e.g., bike taxi, flying taxi, driverless taxi, water taxi, space taxi etc.) and prototypes of autonomous and electric air taxis and robo-taxis. The line up of creativity in the CES 2019 was a feast to eyes, which testifies the upcoming trends in the taxi industry. Therefore, it is for sure the millennials will be witnessing a huge revolution in the transportation sector in the year 2019 also. Here are a few taxi ideologies come true in 2019.

Air Taxi/Flying Taxi

As driverless drones have already been used for delivery purposes and become more popular across the globe, it is time for airborne human transportation, which is closer to becoming a reality. Manufacturers, from aerospace giants to automakers, are likely to invest in autonomous and electric air taxis. Many have come up with their prototypes and will be testing the same before the end of the year. So, we can hire a flying taxi soon!

Robo-taxi

2019 has been the landmark year for robo-taxis as Waymo has already in place, which will be followed by General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, and Intel who are planning to debut driverless taxi in near future. Meanwhile, Uber’s robo-taxi was planned to launch in the mid of 2019; however, a fatal self-driving accident in Arizona delayed the arrival. By partnering with Toyota, the ride-sharing giant plans to put its driverless test cars soon.

Space Taxi

As expected, 2019 will be the year for astronauts to reach International Space Station (ISS). Earlier, NASA has enforced two projects by awarding Boeing and SpaceX $4.2-billion and 2.6-billion contracts, respectively, to build spacecraft for missions to the ISS. The former is planning to test unmanned Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 Starliner capsule by March 2019 and the crewed one by August. SpaceX’s crewed Crew Dragon capsule is expected to be launched by June 2019. However, NASA could push back the already delayed launches after its reviews of both programs. At all cost, the space taxi programs will go live in a year or two.